Coventry City of Culture 2021 take 3 and Heritage Week

Photographic Quiz:-
                                  Photo number 209.

So why is this so special? Where is it? I did spend a little time talking to his daughter about it which was interesting.

                       As you know Blog, at the beginning of September, the towns, villages and cities of our great land used to have a weekend called Heritage Weekend, when buildings, normally closed to the public, are thrown open to the great unwashed. Two years back, this weekend was changed to be a week or ten or so days.  I thought it an excellent idea but few organisations complied, instead most just sticking to the one weekend - which was a shame.
                       I did an extensive display four or five years ago in the Coventry Godiva Harriers clubhouse. This room was not big enough for what I wanted and had to cut my display down to 66 (! Blog I kid you not 66!) display boards, as well as table top exhibits and free standing examples. So when the new extended Heritage Week+ was announced, I set about finding a much bigger room. The gym at the Warwick University next to the Godiva Clubhouse and the Coventry Running Track would have been ideal but the University turned me down telling me the gym was required for September re-sits. When I tried to pursue other large University buildings to loan for ten days, it became clear that they regarded me as a pain in the a**e. I tried other companies in Coventry, for example, Seven Trent, but none showed any real enthusiasm. As the council had huge numbers of empty shops I thought that the loan of a large shop although a bit cramped would be better than nothing. The chatter from all the powers that be, is of 'diversifying the High Street' so I thought I might just be on a winner. Something different for the tired shoppers to do while resting between spends??? Not a bit of it. All political sound bites as usual. BUT, B  U  T  .If I paid a nominal rent, there might be a little slack. Pointing out that the Coventry running club consists of totally non paid volunteers, working hard for the benefit of the youngsters in the City, cut no ice … so 'Thankyou Council but no thanks'.
                       Starting canvassing early as usual for a room for next September (2020), I thought Keighley would be a better bet than Coventry. BUT  B  U  T. They must think I am a Nutter upnoweth with a capital 'NUT' as I haven't even had an automatic acknowledgement!!

                       I do spend quite a bit of my own money accumulating artefacts to supplement my notes or to illustrate a particularly interesting point and it would cost neither Coventry nor Keighley a brass farthing for an interactive display about the sporting past of either. I have just splashed out a smidgeon over £50 on three medals to illustrate events at the turn of the century (1903, and the 20s). One nicely illustrates the appearance of Godiva in a National Cross Country Championships for which I have two large photographs. Both are of the start of the National Cross Country Championship race. One is taken about two hundred yards from the start of the race showing the large field charging in the direction of the photographer, and also can be seen at the side of the course, another photographer about one hundred and fifty yards from the off. This photographer is perched on a set of step ladders to obtain a better shot of the proceedings. My second photograph is taken at the same time as the first photo, and is snapped by the second photographer on the steps, believe it or not Blog!!!! … and in both photos local athletes from local clubs can be clearly picked out, about eight of which I can name …. now if that isn't unusual, nay unique, and of interest for anyone with a passing curiosity about local sport, I don't know what is. And now I have a medal as illustration…….  that has to be worth a shop frontage at the time of the Coventry City of Culture 2021, surely????????????

Don't watch this space Blog, because past experience shows that you will be wasting your time!!!!!!

      October 2019 Warwick University and a bit of walking ..

Picture Quiz:-
                     As you know Blog I am very much in to Athletic History contrasting the fortunes of a famed Midland Harriers club with those of a Northern counterpart, the former prospering while the latter founded although both were influenced by the same forces of philanthropy, industry, education, immigration and emigration, politics, both big 'P' and little 'p', etc. so....

When?? Where?? Why a special date??

...… and to show you I am not a total meanie, Blog, I will give you a clue .. 'I used to run past these building to and from work - Blog I kid you not!!'

Dear Blog,
                Boy what a weekend. Saturday it rained very hard and part of the estate grounds were flooded as usual …. the Environment agency still assure me that a) our part of the village does not flood and b) because the Agency has our telephone number in the unlikely event of a flood, the officers will be in touch with a warning of immanent ingress and advice. So another un likely event has passed with not conversation on the telephone with no advice!!!! The local yokels have a meeting in the village scout hut next week with the Council and the local environmental officers to be told of all the preventative methods which have been put in place since the last flood. I shall go Blog, they do a reasonable instant coffee and a supermarket ginger biscuit. As my good lady bakes all our bread and cakes, I never have a chance to sample what the working classes eat, so I shall pop along just for the experience and to repeat my advice to the officials which I always do. However, I shall inform them that I am committing the advice to face mail so that in future all I need to do is instablog it to them and I needn't bother to rub shoulders with those frightful village types.
              On Sunday, I did my bit for the community by acting as marshal for the Midland Race Walking League. What an experience that was. The University of Warwick had closed the main through campus road and inadequately signed (or rather not signed) the diversion so the quiet road used for the race became a dangerous race track for all the Huber drivers from Wolverhampton who descend on Coventry to pinch the local trade from the Coventry Black Cabs and Taxis. And do Coventry Council care??? Try putting the letters 'N' and 'O' together Blob and see what you get. The University of Warwick used to be so well organised until about 5 years ago, in all aspects of student relations, traffic management and local community activities - now they don't seem to give a toss with a capital 'T' - they are now even proposing to charge for car parking in the evenings and at weekends which will totally annihilate all the local amateur clubs, palate classes, OAP activities … so thanks Warwick University, you keep attracting the fee paying Chinese to the campus and sod to the locals. Abdicate any commitment to the young under privileged and the senior citizens - the first group won't manage to get to University, so they don't matter and the latter group are passed it anyway, so they can go pee in the wind.
          By am I glad its Monday Blog. At least that nice Mr Johnson gave us all an extra hour in bed and the lovely Conservatives didn't charge us a penny - Warwick University take note.
                               Bye Bloggie

SALAZAR, Radcliffe, Cram …… and 

              Coventry EUROPEAN CITY OF SPORT 2019

Photograph:-

Question.... Blog, in which house did I live as a youngster - which lane did we have to walk up, which snicket did we have to walk down to get to our lavatory [a clue:- it is next to the pig sty. Blog, I kid you not] … and we did not use a soft tissue toilet roll - was there such a thing in those days Blog??? So which national newspaper did we employ???

It must have been a bit of a thwart household at the Radcliffe's two weekends ago …… ?? First Paula loses her marathon record and then, on the Sunday. her husband's charge doesn't do too well in the Chicago marathon. Perhaps Mo Farah was on a 'GO SLOW' out of sympathy with Salazar????
Mind you, I didn't think Paula performed too well on TV when the news of Salazar broke. Both her and Cram must have got a few splinters in their respective bums????
It will be interesting to see what Black's new job is, perhaps he will follow a few other(s) from the UK hierarchy to pastures west.

Isn't there a quote somewhere saying something  about the  hand which feeds you. Goodness knows what that is all about. I don't know, just sounded good??

And of course, Coventry University are as organised as ever. Next year's Coventry Half Marathon. organised by them, clashes as it does with the National Relays and  the Coventry Way 40 mile route around Coventry. I suppose the only saving grace is that the Half Marathon appeals to the jogger and the fitness conscious rather than the keen athlete who has aspirations in the athletics' world rather than being content in 'DOING' a half marathon per sec --- I fully expected that such event as the Half Marathon would have been given a real boost when it was announced last year that Coventry was to become the European City of Sport 2019. That has been a bit of a joke, has it not???? What do you think, Blog???? No real cash has been splashed and nowt fresh has occurred - still time yet methinks! Or not!

                                                      Tarrah

..

TITS, and what gets on my ...

You know what they say Blogg, you wait ages for one, then two come along together!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Contiuning my theme of my last letter to you , about e-bay sellers provided inaccurate information, well the case above is another typical example. But this time it is the manufacturer at fault not the seller. The seller, quite understandably, accepted the printed word as accurate, which Blog, I assure you I'SN'T!! At the moment the cost of purchase from e-bay thingie is £6 upwards, but no matter what the price, they are all wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it is Grafton Road and yes, it is in Keighley, or more accurately, the Broomhill Estate, Keighley. The council estate was the first to be built after WW1, with plenty of space and biggish gardens with tenants moving in in 1920. When we moved there from our hovel in Ingrow, about a mile away, the family had electricity for the first time! We didn't have to walk 100 yards and two streets to go to the toilet! We had more than one bedroom! We no longer walked out of the only door onto the street, we had a front AND a back garden! Instead of playing on the stone cobbles of the lane, we had a large area of grass infront of our block of four houses which stood back from the street. Nirvana. 
The 'council schools are a) not in sight  b) the nearest is more than 600 yards behind where the photographer is standing, on a different road on a main route called Queens Road. It is a catholic Infants / junior school. The other is even further away, more than half a mile, just off Queens Road and is called Ingrow Infants / Junior School. It is the school my sister attended when we moved from our slum on Hainworth Lane to a council house. Before that we went to Wesley Place School Infant / junior school on Halifax Road, which I stayed at until my 11+. It involved four daily journeys of about a mile each way!!!
Back to the photo for interest …. at the top, in the distance is a cross roads, on the left is Upper Hird Street, and in the block of four after the first semi detached is where we moved to as kids. At the junction is a post office and grocers called Mr Heaton's where my mother worked on and off if she wasn't working in the mill. Slightly further up on the right is the back entrance to Lund Park, the front entrance of which is where the race is supposed to be passing (last letter to you Blog) but it isn't as I said.
On the left is the council housing estate and the gaps you can see between the blocks are small closes. On the right are posh private houses which back onto a large allotment area, the gap is the entrance. The house on the right is another general store which is where we went for grocers when my mother fell out with Mr Heaton, which she did often.
In the distance past the post office are the really posh people with some large houses. I used to help one old lady - well she looked old to me - do her garden pruning in the autumn. She gave me the tree branches for my plot night bonfire in our back garden. She also gave me an old Monopoly, which I have still got used last time two nights ago, believe it or not Blog. Surely that must be the oldest game in use in this country at the moment???? Dear Mr Gluiness, after you have finished supping your glass of Guinness, could you tell me what the second oldest game being play in this country is, please. Cheers, Colin.
Next time if I remember Blog, I will tell you have I came within 2 inches of killing myself about six months after we had moved in!!!! Blog, I kid you not, 5 centimetres of killing myself!!!

                                                 Colin

                               What really gets on my tits
Photograph no:- 203

Where is this?? When was this?? Who is this - the race walker?? What race is this and how far??

Dear Blog,
                Some things really irritate. Not necessary important things. Things just grate. I need to get a life????
               As part of my two research projects, I sometimes browes e-bay. Those items which give wrong information  about the sale item really get on my tits. Blog, I kid you not. Pathetic I know, but when my irritation over flows I get in touch with the seller to point out the mistake. Is this Sad?. I do need to get a life???? A case in point is the photograph above. The original seller claimed it was a race passing in front of the gates of Lund Park in Ingrow, Keighley. Total Rubbish with a capital 'R'. I told the seller but he / she was unconcerned about the inaccuracy.
Several months later, the buyer advertised the photograph as a race passing through Keighley. Total Rubbish with a capital 'R'. I told the seller but she / he was unconcerned about the inaccuracy.

The reason for their mistake was the note on the back which told 'of the Frenchies coming to Keighley' and the assumption was made that the postcard also related to Keighley. In actual fact, the comment related to a unique event, the first time ever such event had taken place, quite important in social history terms!!!
I of course know where the event took place, certainly NOT Keighley with a capital 'N'. The race itself was quite important in athletic history, but I will tell you all about that some time in the future Blob.
                             Do you know where it is, who it is, when it was, Blog????

                                                                           Colin

                   2019 October 6th National Road Relays at Sutton Park.

Photographic Quiz:-
                               number 201

Still on a car theme ...... 
                             so who does this car belong to? What is the deal?? And who's fault is it???

 Could it be one of these blokes??
                                                  Perhaps the one on the left???
                                                                                                    Could he be from Notts AC????     

                                                


Dear Blog, 
                 Sutton Park for Road Relay Races which means road traffic chaos. Bad to get into the Park to  dump the car (see above) and for most, tents had to be man handled all the way from where the car was parked to the pitching area. The marshals, with one exception, are far from helpful in that they seem to have no methodical approach as to how to park so many cars. As for leaving, they seem to have done their stint by early afternoon and I think they think that they must have thought it would be a great giggle to let the punters sort out their own method of leaving the park. Last year they just packed up and went, leaving behind a total traffic deadlock. Mick Robinson from Notts AC took matters into his own hands and rather than wait for the traffic to sort itself out, he drove his van up the road, through the start / finish area and then continued to drive along the paths we had been running on less than an hour before. Half a dozen of us saw what he was doing and fell in behind!!! At the top of the hill the barriers were still in place blocking further progress along the roadway. Un deterred, Mick takes a left off the road on to the rough ground, up and down a small ditch then down the rough slope to the far gate. The posh Jaguar car in the convoy line  front of me was none too happy about his cross country exploits - the way the driver drove over the deep undulations can have done his car no good at all.
                There seemed more teams than usual and the atmosphere was also much improved. Many  athletes jogging around the course and encouragingly, lots of youngsters.

                                            Take care Blog,
                                                                 Colin

                        

Mini car in times past

Photographic Quiz
          Photo no. 200 nominal for a new start.

car in times

Depressingly, I have attended an alarming number of funerals in the last year. Because most have had a Godiva Harrier connection, the funeral mourners have all been much of a muchness, attending all the services. Without wishing to be in any way disrespectful to any of the deceased, the wakes have appeared to be very much like a gathering of aged pensioners on an organised day trip out from a care home to the local Crematorium!!! One down, so who is next in line. What are the odds? Just as bookies were supposedly banned from AAA handicap meetings in the past, the appearance of a gentleman offering odds on the various congregational members might cause a degree of alarm??

 Colin Kirkham 10 to 3 before Christmas, bar the field. Evens before he reaches 80 years. 1000 to 1 he cocks his clogs tomorrow. 

I met Jack through a mutual friend before I had been in Coventry a month. Both Jack and my friend, a Coventry lad, had met when both were signing on the dole. Neither knew the other was a Godiva member until they had chatted a few times at the dole office!!

Jack had been a member of Coventry Birchfield Harriers soon after they had, in theory at least, severed all ties with the Birmingham Birchfield in the 1920s, despite being a branch club. Branches of athletic clubs were all but banned in the early 20s, but Birchfield being Birchfield didn't quite get the message. Any decent athlete that came to the fore in the Coventry Birchfield Harriers, somehow found them as a competing member for the Birmingham club!!! When Coventry Birchfield metamorphosed into Coventry Harriers, Jack, like most members  transferred to the new club and when that folded, he signed up for Godiva.

Jack is probably up there now at that great athletics' club in the sky, still smiling at the irony of him receiving his letter from the Queen to celebrate his ONE HUNDREDTH birthday, only to be a little bit naughty and cop out the day before!! I wonder if anyone told the Queen. If they did, she might have arrested Jack for false pretences and sent him to the Tower to be tried for treason but Jack fooled her on that score as well, as he was dead.

A story about Jack. Jack didn't have a car, hiring one when necessity demanded. Sometimes he drove me to a race in my mini van if it was an important event. I had bought the mini van new. I clocked a higher than average milage and as the milometer ticked toward 50,00 miles, Jack moaned on about it needing a decoke. No way could I afford that, any way I was none too mechanically minded. No worries says Jack, the blokes at work all do it, it's not too difficult and you can borrow my garage to do it in. Simply follow the Haynes Car Manual instructions on the Mini. Jack worked in a car factory.

So I had a couple of days of holiday left, I get a car manual form the library and buy a decoke kit from the local car parts shop.

I drive the car into Jack's garage, he goes off to work and I strip the engine down. Easi peasi even for me. The garage floor is littered with engine bits, I feel quite proud. I carefully grind the new valves in, and start the reassembly. I get everything back, carefully following the steps in the car manual. THEN, the job of reassembly is complete. BUT the job's not a gudun as I still have a fistful of gaskets left over. The feeling of being so proud with myself turns swiftly to panic.

Jack comes home from work, I explain my dilemma and wait for him to sort it.  

I don't know what you have done wrong he says.

You told me it was simple, I couldn't go wrong

Yes it is simple all the blokes on the track at work say so. I don't understand car engines.

So why have I got these gasket bits left over?

Well I don't know

What do you mean Jack, 'You don't know'. You told me it was simple. I've followed the Manual and I have these bits left .. and I am due back at work tomorrow.

Jack and his missus provide me with an evening meal, as I live four miles away; they also put me up for the night. There is no way I can get into work in the morning, its 13 miles away in a country village in North Warwickshire served by no buses from Coventry. I know no phone numbers to contact anyone at work. I'm screwed.

Next morning after breakfast with Jack, he goes off to work and \all I can do is run the couple of miles to the car part shop where I bought the decoke kit to see if they have any ideas.

I explain to the assistant my dilemma and he calls the manager out from the back room.

I repeat my predicament to the manager and says he will have to have the other two assistants in, to help solve the problem I had presented.

I repeat the story for a third time to all four as they stood stony faced behind the counter.

I started to realised that none of them was taking me seriously, confirmed when first one burst out laughing and then the others cracked up.

The manger apologised and reassured me that my mini van would be OK as the spare bits from the decoke kit were for other variations of the mini, the mini cooper etc. He told me to go back home switch on the engine, rev it a bit and drive off. As an assurance he said that if it didn't work, he or one of the others would come and get it sorted, and because I had given them all a good laugh and taken it in good part, there would be no charged.

I ran back to Jack's switched on the engine and it fired beautifully. I showered and drove into work, better late than never.

And the mini van did another 45,000 miles before I sold it, having had no after effects from my genius mechanical feat.

Jack thought it funny too.

So did his workmates!!!

So Blog, if you have a problem with your car engine, or you want some part or other fixing, let me know and I will fix up a séance with Jack and get it sorted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!